New research suggests teens and young adults are ditching Facebook for Snapchat, while its popularity among over-55s surges.

Creative Snapchat features like filters and lenses, which let you add effects to images, have proved popular with users and been adopted by rival platforms.

More crucially, however, the app's relative privacy and the impermanence of content shared provide teens a forum to be themselves - something many feel they can't be on Facebook.

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Teens and young adults are ditching Facebook for Snapchat while its popularity among over-55s continues to grow, new research has shown. Older audiences favour Facebook's less complicated social network experience (stock image)

The figures come from New York market research company eMarketer, as part of a study on UK and US digital users which is set to be released later this month.

Facebook is still growing in the US market, according to research firm, mainly due to increases in usage by older age groups.

The research firm said it expected the first-ever decline in the 18 to 24 age group in the US, a drop of 5.8 per cent this year.

It also said that for the first time since its research began, less than half of the 12 to 17 age group in the United States would be on Facebook, with a 5.6 per cent drop in that segment.

The under-12 age group meanwhile will see a decline of 9.3 per cent this year, eMarketer said.

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The same trend is expected to continue into 2019 and 2020, with declines in all segments of US users under 25, the report added.

Facebook will lose an estimated two million users under 25 this year, with Snapchat and Instagram the main beneficiaries.

Facebook remains the most popular social network in the US market with an estimated 169.5 million users this year, according to eMarketer.

But faster-growing Instagram will be used by 104.7 million Americans and Snapchat will reach 86.5 million users, according to the forecast.

'Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it's redesigning its platform to be easier to use,' eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

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Facebook remains the most popular social network in the US market with an estimated 169.5 million users this year, according to eMarketer. But faster-growing Instagram will be used by 104.7 million Americans and Snapchat will reach 86.5 million users, according to the forecast

WHY DO YOUNG PEOPLE PREFER SNAPCHAT?

Snapchat’s popularity with teens and young adults has grown significantly since the platform first launched in 2011.

It has been suggested that the instant messaging app’s range of creative and interactive features like filters, lenses and Bitmoji, are partially responsible for its success.

These let you add effects to images and create virtual avatars and have since been adopted by rival platforms.

However, Snapchat’s relative privacy and the impermanence of material shared compared with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may be the crucial factor in its popularity among young people.

That's according to Joseph Philleo, a USC undergraduate student in mathematics, economics and machine learning and self-described 'Millennial tech adopter' who discussed his thoughts on Quora.

On Snapchat, all content is time-limited and can be sent directly to an individual or small group of friends.

This lets you control exactly who sees the pictures and videos you make and for how long.

As a result, users feel free to share awkward, embarrassing or unflattering selfies, safe in the knowledge that this won’t be visible forever, unlike the permanent posts on other platforms.

This leads to a more authentic user experience and is of benefit to everyone who uses the app, but it’s a particular attraction for younger people.

More mature internet users may feel comfortable and confident being themselves in any online forum.

Snapchat, through its closed groups and temporary sharing, provides a sense of security for teens and youngsters who are still finding their way in the world to be themselves.

'The question will be whether younger users will still find Snapchat cool if more of their parents and grandparents are on it. That's the predicament Facebook is in.'

Overall, the number of total Facebook users in the UK is predicted to reach 32.6 million in the coming year.

But around 700,000 fewer young people in the UK, aged 12 to 24, will use the site than the previous year.

Meanwhile, around half a million new over-55s are expected to join Facebook in 2018.

If this trend is mirrored globally, it could mean tens of millions of young people will leave the site, to be replaced by their older counterparts.

In 2018, 83 per cent of social network users aged 18 to 24 will be Facebook users, and this share will drop to 81.5 per cent by 2021. Leading the charge for younger audiences is Snapchat, whose popularity with teens and young adults has grown significantly

WHAT HAS SNAPCHAT INTRODUCED IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS?

Snapchat has introduced several major new features in the last six months to increase its popularity, including:

App redesign: Separates 'Friends' and 'Discover' pages to create a more personalised experience.

Deluxe bitmoji app: Features new hairstyles and skin tones and more inclusive avatars.

Snap Store: Users can buy a t-shirt with a dog filter plastered on the front or a plushie of the firm's 'augmented reality superstar,' also known as the dancing hot dog, among other items.

Custom geofilters: Geofilters are a location-based tool that allows Snapchat users to share where they are, or what they're up to, by adding overlay text and images to a Snap. They can be placed to cover an area the size of a house up to a 100 football pitches and made visible for a couple of hours up to a few days.

Share Snapchat Stories with anyone: Users can now share Snapchat stories with anyone, regardless of whether they have the app. The features allows users to create a hyperlink for clips and pictures. The feature appears when you press and hold down on certain ‘tiles’ in the Discover part of the app.

Add links, voice filters and backdrops to snaps: The 'paperclip' feature allows users to add a link to their snap, which users can open by swiping up. The 'backdrops' feature allows users to add a motif backdrop to their snap by drawing they want to stand outside of the filter. The 'voice filters' allows users to remix the sound of their voice in various different styles, including that of a cat or an alien.

'This latest forecast indicates that it's more than a theory. And whereas it's been able to rely on platform shifters being hoovered up by Instagram, there are now some early signs that younger social networkers are being swayed by Snapchat.

'The challenge and opportunity for Snap is how to appeal beyond that core youth demographic.'

Snapchat's popularity with teens and young adults has grown significantly since the platform first launched in 2011.

On Snapchat, all content is time-limited and can be sent directly to an individual or small group of friends, and this is a key-factor in its appeal to young people.

That's according to Joseph Philleo, a USC undergraduate student in mathematics, economics and machine learning and self-described 'Millennial tech adopter' who discussed his thoughts on Snapchat's popularity on Quora.

The instant messaging app has also introduced a range of interactive features that have appealed to teen audiences, in turn driving up the user number.

That has arguably turned off older audiences who favour Facebook's less complicated social network experience.

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HOW IS SNAPCHAT PERFORMING?

Snapchat's parent company, Snap, has announced stronger-than-expected growth in the last quarter of 2017.

Announced on Tuedsday February 6, Snap shares have gone up by 22 per cent in after-hours trading to $17.09 (£12.28).

The company announced a 72 per cent year-on-year increase to $286 million (£205m), far surpassing expert predictions of $253.2 million (£182m) as companies advertised more in the key Christmas period.

As well as financial improvements, the number of Snapchat users has also increased.

Snapchat now has 187 million current active daily users, that's a gain of 8.9 million in the quarter and up 18 per cent from a year earlier.

With its new update, Snapchat has redesigned the Discover section to allow people to see more posts from publishers, creators, and the community.

With this latest ability to share posts outside of the app at the touch of a button, ad impressions have soared by more than 575 per cent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, according to chief financial officer Drew Vollero.